Suzette Mayr of Calgary, Alberta has won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her sixth novel, The Sleeping Car Porter. From The Globe and Mail:
Published by Coach House Books, The Sleeping Car Porter tells the story of a queer Black train worker in the 1920s who must contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts and his secret love affair.
The awarding of the most lucrative prize in Canadian literature was witnessed at an in-person gala hosted by actress Sarah Gadon and poet Rupi Kaur, by an invitation-only black-tie crowd of 350 in the ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel.
This is not Mayr’s first shot at the Giller:
Ms. Mayr’s 2011 novel Monoceros was longlisted for a Giller, shortlisted for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and won the ReLit Award, which recognizes Canadian independent publishers. Her comic novel The Widows from 1998 was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region.
The Sleeping Car Porter was chosen as the year’s best by a Giller jury of fellow Canadian authors Casey Plett, Kaie Kellough and Waubgeshig Rice, and U.S. authors Katie Kitamura and Scott Spencer. The book can expect a sales bump. After last year’s Giller win, Mr. El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise jumped onto The Globe and Mail Bestsellers List for Canadian fiction and stayed there for more than two months.
You can see the full piece here.
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